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Sylvie Kauffmann

Sylvie Kauffmann

Financial Times

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France isn’t ready to send its children into battle

A speech by a leading general hinting at the need for conscription has taken the French out of their comfort zone

27.11.2025 9

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

How domestic deadlock brought Jupiterian Macron back to earth

Only the spectre of the far right in government might save the embattled French president and his ambitions for Europe

11.10.2025 40

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Trump is oblivious to Europe’s history

The US president’s indifference to the past blinds him to Russia’s intentions in Ukraine

29.08.2025 30

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Russia is digging in for the long haul in Ukraine

Kyiv’s western allies need to recognise that Putin has made the war central to his legitimacy

11.07.2025 4

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Europe, the US and the question of values

The principles underpinning what the Trump administration calls ‘western civilisation’ differ on either side of the Atlantic

04.06.2025 4

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Europe can find strength in its solitude

Alone and betrayed by its most important ally, it is also larger than ever

29.04.2025 10

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Europe’s moment is more than reheated Gaullism

Macron may not yet be bragging about it, but his crusade for strategic autonomy seems at long last to be vindicated

18.03.2025 9

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Trump is forcing Europe to a reckoning on Ukraine

The worst nightmare of leaders on the continent is a deal between Putin and the US president done over their heads

11.02.2025 7

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

France’s political institutions are creaking

A system designed in the late 1950s is looking increasingly dysfunctional

08.12.2024 20

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Merkel’s memoir reveals her blind spots on Russia

What she does not say about Moscow is as significant as what she does say

28.11.2024 40

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Europe urgently needs a dose of Franco-German couples therapy

It’s in Brussels’ interests for Paris and Berlin to find a way to work together again

14.10.2024 20

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann

Macron’s temporising keeps a divided France on edge

Mutually hostile political parties appear in no mood for a compromise to dig the president out of his hole

30.08.2024 6

Financial Times

Sylvie Kauffmann